Coat Color in Greyhounds

When breeding a greyhound litter it is always exciting to see what colors the puppies are. With a few basic rules of genetics, the majority of the time colors can be predicted. Three basic colors are present in the breed.

Black

BISS Ch Helios Sun King

Red Brindle

BISS DC Aragon Night Frost VCD1 CDX TDX OJP RE SC VCX

and Red

BISS Ch Aryal Aroi Stoney Ridge CD TD RE NAJ SC

Dogs receive a color gene from each parent meaning if they receive a black gene from one parent and a red gene from the other the dog will be black. If they receive a brindle gene and a red gene the dog will be brindle.

Next comes the modifier genes. The first one is the dilution color. It is recessive so a dog must receive a dilute gene from each parent. If they only have one dilution gene the dog will a nondilute color. So the dilution gene on a black dog gives a

Blue

U-Ch Chaparral Toblerone RN TT CGC

The dilution gene on a brindle creates a blue brindle


Ch Aragon Silver Cloud CDX TDX

The dilution gene on a red creates a blue fawn

Windrock Sin City Playboy RA JC

And last is the Parti gene. This gene allows only part of the base color to be expressed. Once again this modifier gene is recessive meaning the dog has to get the gene from both parents. If it only gets one it is a solid colored dog.

Black+Parti

Ch Aragon Lunar Eclipse VCD1 MX MXJ RE JC

If the dilute gene is present it would be a blue and white parti color(no photo).

Brindle+Parti would be a red brindle(No photo)
if+Dilute would be a blue brindle parti

Ch Aragon Silver Oak

And lastly Red+Parti would be a red and white color

Ch Gaia Best Mate

if+Dilute would be Blue Fawn Parti

DC Windrock Luck Be A Lady

This covers about 99% of the coat colors, some rarer colors such as liver or chocolate or EE Red are not covered but infrequently seen.

Greyhounds Are Versatile Part 1

Poppy has been a long time friend and owns Pearl(Aragon Mystic Pearl). She has known me through my original greyhounds and all subsequent generations. When I first met Poppy she owned Weimaraners and Beagles. Owning a greyhound wasn't something she had considered. Through our friendship she learned about the breed. She has helped raise and socialize litters, helped through their illnesses and puppy placements. In fact when I think back through my years with the dogs, Poppy frequently comes to mind. Many years ago she moved across the country to be nearer to her family. When she lost her last greyhound Angel(Aragon Shimmering Mist) she was on the list for another puppy from Lyric. Below is her story of her involvement and thoughts on greyhounds.

Greyhounds are wonderful dogs. A lot of people think that greyhounds need a lot of space to run all of the time but that is not always the case. Some get to run in the great outdoors, up hill and down dale. Lyric(mom),Whisper(cousin)and Dede(friend).





Jesse(aunt) and Merlin(father)




Some have their own sand pit to play in at home - Lyric, Whisper and Apollo.



Beautiful and lucky greyhounds have families that work a lot with them and take them to dog shows and show them off and get their championships with them. - Lyric, Darby Crash, Echo, Tanner, and Becca.



Some are lucky enough to sleep on the furniture. - Tanner and Ember.



To Continue in Part 2

Raw Diet

The past year I switched my adult dogs to a raw food diet. After hearing and reading other people's experiences with raw foods I thought I would give it a one month trial. One month extended to two and then three months. One year later I am still feeding a raw diet. As the food trial continued I have been looking into sources to get less expensive cuts of meat than the grocery store. The small tidy cellophane wrapped packages of meat have given way to buying bulk and distibuting into smaller portions.



With bulk buying though you never know quite what you will get. This time I ordered 40# of young turkey legs. DeDe's head is a model of the size of the legs. If these are young turkey legs I can't imagine a full grown turkey.




Since the leg is as a big as a greyhound head maybe the turkey is a big as the dog?

Dog Cars

Why I Suffer a MiniVan

I say suffer because there is no looking cool in a minivan, like say you would in a nifty little sportscar or convertible or even an older SUV (like my old Bronco!). There is NOTHING you can spice it up with that will make you anything more than a Middle Aged PTA Soccer-Mom to every other driver on the road, even if you have no children and play old-skool punk at full volume. A MiniVan is just not a fun vehicle, utilitarian and convenient yes, but fun? Not really. But I have 4 reasons to own one.





3 big dogs and 1 little troublemaker need lots of space to travel. And dog pillows. And fuzzy blankets. It looks like a harem quarters south of the drivers seat. I don't crate my dogs when I take them in the van, so they need to get along and have reliable car manners. I'm very proud of them in that respect. Everybody knows 'in the car', they each find a spot and curl up. Dee likes the front passenger seat, Darby likes the back bench seat as his perch when I have it locked in place (funny, just like his mother), Dretti likes to lay with his head propped up on the center console, and Q pretty much takes whatever space is left over. Nobody fusses or snipes. Once we're underway, nobody moves, unless it's to smear noses on the side windows until I open them up so they can taste the wind. Darby is tall enough to stand and get his face out the window easily, Dretti and Dee aren't quite tall enough so usually you just see their noses skimming the top of the open window. Funny. The sunroof is fun, it allows for GPS (greyhound positioning system) and the ever entertaining flappy-wind-lip.